At their December 14th meeting, the Federal Open Market Committee raised the federal funds target rate to between 0.50% and 0.75%. The 25 basis point increase was widely expected by financial market participants.

I grew up in rural Wisconsin, on a dairy farm, working 65 hours per week in the summer and 40 during the school year milking cows, planting & harvesting crops, etc. (I was the second oldest of nine children, and my older sister had special needs – my family needed the labor).

The U.K. has voted to leave the European Union in an unprecedented move. In a somewhat surprising move, the decision to “Brexit” recorded 51.9% of the votes from the overall turnout of 72% of U.K. voters.